Dear Sir, - I commenced reading "London Life" shortly after I became one-legged, and I have been a regular reader ever since. I trust you can find space in your columns to publish this letter, which may prove a change for my one-legged colleagues from the rubber-mac and long-hair correspondence which has been predominating for some time.
I am 25 years of age, and lost my leg when I was 21, up to which time I had been a dancing instructress - although there was really no necessity for me to do this, as my parents had left me a very comfortable income, quite adequate to make me independent.
I was driving home one foggy night, after giving a very charming one-legged girl a few lessons in simple dancing, and as she was such a sweet girl, I drove her home: Soon after I had dropped her, I had a crash and remembered nothing more until I came to in a nursing home, and was later told that my left leg had been amputated above the knee. This was a bitter pill, which I felt I should never swallow, as I realised that it meant the end of all my sports and dancing, of which I was so passionately fond.
I am afraid I took my one-legged condition rather bitterly, especially when, after a week or two, I got out of bed and had to hop on my one leg to a wheeled chair in which I used to propel myself about, and realised my helplessness as I looked at my half empty dress draping loosely.
After about a week of getting about in my chair, I was measured for a pair of crutches, and when these arrived I immediately started using them. After a few days' practice and a few falls, I commenced hopping about the grounds of the nursing home; and, strange to say, when I got used to the friendly contact of the padded shoulder rests beneath my armpits, I began to look upon my one-legged condition from a different angle.
I returned home to my flat, and quickly started, under the supervision of my maid, to hop about on a single crutch, so as to have one hand free. This I soon mastered, and in a few weeks I permanently discarded one crutch and ventured out of doors all alone and hopped on and off several 'buses with a single crutch under my left armpit, as of course my driving days were over.
One day my late one-legged pupil came to see me, as I had written and told her that I was like herself, one-legged - the difference between us being the loss of opposite legs. She brought me a whole number of back issues of "London Life," and as I read them I soon began to realise that there was plenty of kick to be got out of life although I was one-legged. This was the commencement of the real turning point of my one-legged career.
I ordered several frocks and dresses, having them made so as to set off my one-legged figure to the fullest extent.
I am accounted a very good-looking girl by my friends, being one of those rare platinum blonds. My hair, which is so sleek and smooth, I wear in a very long sort of pageboy roll reaching down to several inches below my shoulders. I have not had my eyebrows plucked, as they are not too thick and are quite nicely arched.
I, however, use mascara and shading under my eyes. Instead of rouge, I favour a faint purple collaring on my cheeks, with a fairly generous supply of vivid purple lipstick on my lips, which completes a rather uncommon make-up, but one which is quite suitable to my extreme fairness.
My finger and toe-nails are coloured to match my lips. Although I am passionately fond of nice clothes, I have no desire for jewellery. The only thing I wear is a flat gold expanding 2 inch wide circlet which I bought in Paris after seeing one on a very chic Parisian one-legged girl, whom I got to know rather intimately. She told me that these circlets are very much in favour with well-to-do one-legged French women, and I have since discovered that this is quite a distinctive fashion among them.
During the first winter after losing my leg I was advised by my one-legged old pupil to wear trousers, as a protection against the cold to my amputated limb; but I did not quite like the idea of being measured with only one leg. However, I eventually got over my feelings in this respect, and went to a well-known firm of tailors and ordered several pairs. I need not have had any qualms about being one-legged, because the girl who attended to me told me quite casually, as she was measuring me, that her firm had several one-legged lady customers, to whom she attended.
There is no doubt that trousers are very comfortable, and I wear them quite a lot when in the country, where I am now, and am afraid that I shall be for a long time yet. Admittedly they make my one-legged appearance more obvious than a dress does, but I do no mind that, because it is not my fault that I am one-legged; and besides, what is the good of being different to other girls if you do not take advantage of it?
I am sure there is something about being one-legged, if a girl is smartly dressed, which appeals to our menfolk, because I have been told times out of number how attractive my one-legged appearance is as I hop gracefully about upon my single crutch, and, to use rather an odious expression, I can "get off" at any time, if I so desired.
The four years I have been one-legged seem to have passed very quickly, and I have almost forgotten when my one and only leg had a companion; but of one thing I am certain - and that is, I much prefer its singleness, with my single crutch taking the place of my missing leg.
It may seem incredible to some of your readers how I have changed my attitude toward my one-leggedness, but I can only say that the primary cause was the letters which I read in your paper. which gave me the first inspiration to adapt myself to me one-legged condition, and time has done the rest.
In conclusion, I should like to thank most heartily dear old "London Life" and to wish the best of luck to all readers who, like myself, have to hop through life on one leg, and to assure them that personally, I would not have two legs again, being too much enamoured of my one-legged deficiency, which is amply compensated for by the sensations I derive in being able to overcome various difficulties caused by the amputation of my left leg, which resulted in making me a one-legged girl.
Yours truly,
One Leg Preferred.